As Dalton Dover was scanning the pages of his new volume of the book of Alkarog, something caught his eye. It had a lot of genomic notations and a picture of some kind of insectoid creature on it.

Acrididae Carnivora – Zalzok strain

I came across this searching through the archives of the Nal'Larak and thought it warranted inclusion in this anthology. As far as warfare goes, it is one of the great marvels that does not use any metaphysical power or principles.

One of the catalysts that culminated in the great war between the clans was an attack on the Nal'Hirak station near Torg City on the capital of Droyla, one of the twin worlds of the reptilian sector that historically belonged to the Fire Flower Clan. The Fire Flower had artillery but limited infantry and did not want to risk of a bombardment of the much more well-armed Nal' Hirak.

One of the Fire Flower's top technologists, Zalzok devised a solution based upon his studies of elven genetic engineering techniques. He created a modified version of the flesh-eating insect Acrididae Carnivora native to Trygoth, the reptilian homeworld. This modified version will and must feed on a special kind of lipid that can only be found in the cells of almost no living things outside of the reptilia and their closest evolutionary cousins.

The insects were massed produced fairly easily and then unleashed among their unsuspecting enemies. Conventional weaponry is all but useless once a swarm of these hungry creatures are over their target area. Their metabolisms are accelerated and they have no way to slow it down, meaning they are ravenous and that their numbers dissipate quickly from starvation after they have no food source, preventing any ecological damage which the Nal Larak clans strongly eschew.

Dover looked at the list of loci and the sequences to be replaced. There were only 28, which was a surprisingly low number to make a seemingly large number of modifications to this particular insectoid. Dover pulled out his phone and pushed a few buttons on it. Brian's voice answered almost immediately.

"Brian, can you ready the biosynthesis lab and the personnel. We're going to need to work quickly, here."

"I'm guessing you haven't found anything we can use in Alkarog's book yet?" Brian asked.

"Not exactly. I'll meet you over at the lab in 10 minutes."

"All right" Brian asked. "By the way, Chris and Melinda are here and say they want to borrow the crane ship. He says he know of a place to get some useful weapons. Can I give him the go?"

"Yes" Dover answered, "but I want you to accompany him on this trip. We need to give Milo room to do what he wants, but we also need to keep a close eye on him."

"All right" Brian answered. "I'm heading over the lab right now."